A SCHOOL badly damaged by an earthquake is to be rebuilt thanks to students and graduates from the university which opened it.

An appeal by the University of Brighton to repair the school in Nepal has raised more than £8,000 in less than a month.

Based in the remote hamlet of Malagiri, the school was badly damaged during last month’s devastating quake.

It was opened by the university in 2011 with money raised by staff and students from its education department.

Extra money raised by the Operation Rebuild appeal will be given to local families whose homes have been wrecked.

Head of the university’s school of education, Lorraine Harrison, said: “The response from everyone has been magnificent and I am enormously proud of how the university has reacted so positively to this terrible disaster.

“The school enabled children in Malagiri to enjoy their very first formal education.

“We are thankful that there are no reports of fatalities but the school sustained serious damage with large cracks appearing in the walls and floors.”

University director of philanthropy and alumni engagement, Sam Davies, was amazed by the number of fundraising events organised to help collect vital cash.

She said: “We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped but there is still a great deal to do and I would urge people to keep giving.

“Further updates are expected in due course, but in the meantime, the Malagiri committee within the school of education would like to encourage staff, students, alumni and university partners who are in a position to do so to make a donation to support the school and its community at this difficult time.”

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25 killed at least 8,150 people, triggered devastating landslides on Mount Everest and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, without food and water in the country’s worst-recorded quake since 1934.

A second magnitude-7.3 quake on Tuesday last week left yet people more dead and homeless.

To donate to the university appeal, visit www.justgiving .com/school-for-malagiri. For information about the project, visit www.brighton. ac.uk/education/aboutus/malagiri.